Across Europe and around the world, older adults are living on the frontlines of climate change.

 

They are not just witnesses to a rapidly changing environment, but also among the most vulnerable populations affected by it, from heatwaves and floods to food insecurity and displacement. Yet despite their lived wisdom and long memory, older people are too often left out of climate action initiatives. At Artit, we believe that older adults are not only capable of meaningful climate engagement, but they are essential to it. This guide, based on the completed Seniors Climate Action (SCA) Erasmus+ project and expanded by Artit, offers a comprehensive, creative, and practical framework for professionals who work with older people. It is designed for those who want to create safe, inclusive spaces where older adults can connect, reflect, and act on environmental issues through the power of creativity.

 

 

Whether you're an artist, a care worker, a community organiser, or a local authority staff member, this guide equips you with tools to bridge the gap between climate knowledge and personal action through arts-based, participatory methods.

 

 

 

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✧Participation Principles: Laying the Foundation for Meaningful Engagement

 

Creating the right conditions for older adults to engage with climate themes starts with trust, inclusion, and emotional safety. Here are the guiding principles:

 

 

1. Start with Familiarity

Use familiar settings and language. Don’t begin with climate science; start with seasons, gardens, memories of walking to school, or traditional food preparation. Anchor environmental topics in lived experience.

Example: A workshop opens with a simple question: "What do you remember about the first snowfall of the year when you were a child?" This triggers personal memories that later lead to discussions about changing winters.

 

 

2. Foster Emotional Safety

Climate discussions can provoke anxiety, grief, or sadness. Create a space where all emotions are welcome and nothing needs to be "fixed."

Tip: Include a reflection time at the end of each session with a grounding question like:

“What stayed with you from today’s conversation?”

 

 

3. Respect Different Levels of Readiness

Not everyone will want to talk or create immediately. Participation might look like listening, helping with materials, or coming back week after week without speaking. This is still a valid engagement.

Practice: Allow “entry points” at different levels, verbal, visual, tactile, or silent.

 

 

4. Honour Life Experience

Older adults carry decades of lived wisdom. Frame climate action as intergenerational care, continuity, and shared responsibility, not as a new burden to carry. Quote from participant:

"I’ve lived through wars and rebuilding. I know what resilience means. Maybe I can help my grandchildren learn that, too."

 

 

 

 

✧Creative Activity Formats: Art as a Doorway to Engagement

 

Artistic expression offers a unique way for older people to process environmental change, not through statistics, but through memory, emotion, and imagination. Here are activity formats that have worked across contexts:

 

 

1. Memory Mapping

Participants draw or collage a map of a place they know well (village, city street, coastline) from memory, then add a layer of how it has changed over time.

Materials: Paper, pencils, colored markers, glue, and old magazines.

Impact: This activity often reveals subtle environmental shifts and deep emotional connections to place.

 

 

 

2. Climate Diaries

Participants keep a weekly notebook of local environmental observations: early blossoms, unusual rainfall, strong winds, etc. These are paired with reflections or sketches.

Extension: Can be shared monthly in a group to create a seasonal community diary.

 

 

 

3. Found Object Assemblage

Invite participants to collect discarded or natural objects (bottle caps, leaves, string, feathers) and create an artwork titled “Things I Wish We Kept.”

Reflection Prompt: What do these objects say about what we throw away? What’s still beautiful in them?

 

 

 

4. Intergenerational Letter Writing

Encourage participants to write letters to their grandchildren, future generations, or even their childhood selves about environmental changes they’ve seen and hopes for the future.

Tip: These can be read aloud in a closing circle or illustrated with drawings.

 

 

 

5. Patchwork of Actions

Create a fabric or paper patchwork quilt where each square represents a sustainable action participants already take (e.g., composting, mending, reusing). Assemble it as a visual celebration.

Message: “We are already doing more than we think.”

 

 

 

 

✧Barrier-Focused Adaptations: Ensuring Everyone Can Participate

 

 

1. For Limited Mobility

• Use table-based or lap-friendly activities.
• Offer audio instructions for those who struggle to read.
• Encourage verbal contributions for those who cannot write or draw.

 

2. For Cognitive or Memory Impairments

• Use simple, sensory-rich prompts (smells, music, textures).
• Keep sessions short with clear, repeated structure.
• Provide example responses or shared tasks to reduce performance pressure.

 

3. For Emotional Overwhelm

• Normalize silence and gentle withdrawal.
• Frame difficult topics through metaphor: e.g., compare climate grief to the changing of seasons.
• Offer calming practices like breath work or guided visualization at the end.

 

 

 

✧Sample Workshop Structures

 

Option A: Single Drop-In Session

Theme: “Seasons of Change”
Activity: Memory Mapping + Climate Diary Starter
Duration: 90 minutes
Closing Prompt: "What do you notice now that you didn’t before?"

 

 

Option B: 3-Session Mini-Series

Theme: "From Memory to Meaning"
Session 1: Story Circle – Environmental Memories
Session 2: Found Object Assemblage
Session 3: Intergenerational Letter Writing + Showcase
Optional: Invite local youth to read letters aloud.

 

 

Option C: 6–8 Week Creative Journey

Goal: Build community, deepen reflection, and co-create a collective artwork (quilt, zine, mural).

• Start with personal memories.
• Move toward current feelings and shared knowledge.
• End with collaborative creation and public display.

 

 

 

✧Climate Facts in Plain Language

 

To empower older participants, climate facts must be relatable and free from jargon. Here’s how we present data:

• “Since the 1950s, summers in Southern Europe have become longer by about 5 weeks.”

• “In 2022, over 60,000 people in Europe died due to extreme heat. Most were over the age of 65.”

• “In the UK, the average household throws away nearly 70 kg of food each year.”

Use questions like:

• “Have you noticed the trees blooming earlier?”

• “Do the seasons feel different from when you were young?”

• “How has your food shopping changed in recent years?”

 

 

✧Emotional Support Tools: Creating a Space for Grief and Hope

 

 

Environmental change often stirs deep emotions. Our role is not to “solve” these, but to make space for them. Practices include:

• Circle sharing: Invite participants to share memories of landscapes they miss.
• Anticipatory grief writing: Ask, “What do you worry might disappear in the next 10 years?”
• Hope board: Each person adds a word or image representing what they still cherish and want to protect.

 

Facilitators are encouraged to:

• Validate all emotional responses.
• Check in privately with participants who appear distressed.
• Close each session with a calming practice, music, breath, tea ritual, or gentle touch-based art (like making marks with fingers in sand).

 

 

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This guide is not about making perfect art or solving the climate crisis. It is about helping older adults feel connected, heard, and empowered through creativity, care, and community. At Artit, we are committed to creating inclusive, imaginative tools that support social and environmental engagement across all ages. We believe that creativity can be a powerful force for change, and that older adults have a vital role to play in shaping the future. If you have insights, stories, or creative work you'd like to share, or if you're interested in developing a similar project together, we would love to hear from you. Get in touch with us and let's imagine what's possible.